Apr. 3, 2008 Spy Tool For Photography Buffs (not really, but a cool tool nonetheless)
I've been meaning to post and let you know about this for a while. In fact, I know I've told a few of you about it already.
There is a free tool you can download that will let you view the EXIF data for photos. The EXIF data is the information the camera stores for each photo you take. It's kind of like each photo's stats. It will tell you the camera make & model, focal length (which is a great clue to the lens used), shutter speed, aperture, ISO, mode (manual, auto, program, etc.- although I notice that even when I shoot in AV mode, it sometimes calls that auto), white balance (auto, manual, shady, etc.), exposure bias (when you use exposure compensation), if flash was used, metering mode and more.
I love this because if I see a photo I really like and am curious to know what settings were used, I can sometimes peek using this tool. After this program is installed, all you have to do is right click on the photo & choose "View EXIF info." Sometimes I just like to guess what lens was used or another setting and see if I got it right. Hee-hee!
This won't work for every photo you see though. First of all, not all cameras store EXIF data. Most DSLR's and some higher end digital point & shoots will though. And secondly, when people save for the web or do some editing on the photo, sometimes the EXIF data gets stripped in the process- you won't be able to view EXIF data for those types of photos.
All photos I post on the web go through Photoshop first. Lately, I haven't been doing much, if any, editing at all, but I do always run them through my "resize for the web/frame" action. This does not alter the EXIF data though, so if you're ever wondering what my settings were on a particular photo, feel free to "spy" on me by using Opanda's IEXIF tool! |
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Feb. 20, 2008 Wordless Wednesday: Photo 9,749 Of My Son Sucking His Thumb (AND PT&T- Exposure, Grain, ISO, etc.)
Okay, make that photos 9,750, 9,751 and 9,752 also because later on that evening he fell asleep in the van and daddy put him on the couch when we got home and he just laid there forever looking so cute with his thumb in his mouth and I just had to get my camera out again. How's that for a run-on sentence?
I can't help it. He'll go from thinking he's so big and independent back to behaviors he's had since an infant. It just melts my heart. What can I say?
Just a few different angles of my sleeping child.
Camera Settings, High ISO's, Exposure and Grain. Oh my.
And I'm going to squeeze another word in here on this Not-So-Wordless Wednesday for you photography buffs out there. I am SO impressed with my Canon 40D's ability to handle high ISO's! If I had taken these same photos with my 300D, well for one thing, I couldn't have (without using a flash) because they would've turned out blurry. I could only push that camera so far. Whenever I'd shoot anything at 800 or 1600 ISO (the max the 300D will go), they'd turn out so grainy they looked terrible and usually ended up in the recycle bin.
The 40D does a great job with high ISO's and keeps the grain to a minimum. Plus, you can turn on a custom function that will filter the grain automatically when you use high ISO's. I do have that setting turned on. But another key in getting minimal grain when you are shooting with high ISO's is nailing the exposure. If you underexpose even a little bit & lighten it back up later, that grain is going to show up.
With these photos, I had my ISO turned up to 3200 (the max the 40D will go). I used my 85mm lens and had my aperture open to 2.0 (except for the B&W- I had that one set at 2.2). My 85mm can open up to 1.8, and that would've given me more light, but as you can see, even using 2.0 or 2.2, the depth of field (area of the photo that is in focus) is very shallow. My shutter speeds on these three were between 1/50 & 1/60, which is too slow for comfort. Normally, I like to keep my shutter speeds at 1/100 or higher. However, my subject was not moving so that helped.
My favorite shooting mode, since my usual subjects are my children, is aperture priority mode. Some photographers will argue that if you don't shoot in full manual, you aren't a real photographer. But I'm shooting for myself, no one else and don't care what they say. :) Plus, I know HOW to shoot in manual, but just find myself not being able to keep up and miss too much.
In aperture priority mode, I choose the aperture and let the camera choose the shutter speed. However, just because the camera chooses the shutter speed does NOT mean I ignore the shutter speed. On the contrary- I keep a close eye on it. And if I think the shutter speed is too slow, I can help increase the shutter speed by bumping up the ISO or opening up my aperture more.
If it's too fast, well, I don't normally worry about it being too fast unless one of two things is also happening: 1. the shutter speed is maxed out (like if it's at 1/8000 a second and I'm overexposing) or 2. my ISO is set too high or higher than it needs to be. Then I need to make ISO and/or aperture changes.
Now, take these pictures I took of Josiah. It was pitch dark outside and the only light I had came from a lamp across the room from him. I did a custom white balance because no matter what auto white balance setting I used, the color was funky. (BTW, when I went to find & add the link to the tutorial I did on CWB, I noticed that the category link wasn't working! Doh! I've got that fixed now) I knew I'd have to be super careful with the exposure or they'd be too grainy to keep. So after doing a CWB, bumping my ISO up as high as it would go and opening up my aperture as much as I wanted it to be, I took a test shot and checked the histogram. The histogram is a graph of your photo's exposure. Maybe I'll explain the histogram in detail sometime (in the meantime, google it if you're curious- there are tons of great tutorials out there), but basically, when the lightest tones in the picture are say, Josiah's hair and skin, I have a good idea where the right side of the histogram should fall to ensure proper exposure.
On my test shot, the right side of the histogram fell in the 4th (out of 5) bar of the histogram. That is TOO dark for my pale-skinned son. It needs to be at least halfway into the 5th bar to get proper skin exposure (on my children and camera- everyone's will vary).
Keeping the camera in Aperture-priority mode, I adjusted the exposure compensation** in 1/3 increments until I noticed the histogram shifting to where it should be for proper exposure of his face. At +1 of exp. comp., I finally got proper exposure. The photo above was what his skin tones looked like "straight out of camera", or SOOC. Adjusting the exposure compensation pretty much overrides the camera's light meter, whose job is to keep the scene an average of 18% gray.
As a side note to help you understand that "18% gray" thing... I've found when shooting in the snow, I have to overexpose by at least a full stop to get that snow looking white. When the snow is filling most of your frame and you let the light meter pick your settings and don't compensate for them, the snow will look more gray than white. The camera is saying, "Oh! Too much white! Make it gray! Quick, 18% gray!" Okay, maybe it's not actually saying that; my camera doesn't really talk to me. Hee-hee. But that is the job of the light meter and is another time you'd want to override it. You are the human with the brain after all and you get the final say.
I did not at all plan to do a post on Photography Tip & Tricks tonight, it kind of just turned into this. I didn't save any shots to show as an example of what the light meter thinks of as proper exposure so that you could compare it with the properly exposed shot. Oops! But you can play around with this and see for yourself if you want.
All this to say, with proper exposure (adjusting your ISO, shutter speed and aperture appropriately and watching/knowing your histogram) you can decrease the grainy effects when using higher ISO's.
And on with Photos 9,751 and 9,752 of Josiah sucking his thumb.
Looking at these makes me sleepy. I need to go to bed.
**(You'll have to check your camera's manual on how to adjust exposure compensation on your camera. It's even done differently with my 2 Canons, so I'm not even going to attempt to tell you how to adjust that. But I believe all DSLR's, and even some high end P&S's, will allow you to adjust the exposure compensation.) |
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Jan. 5, 2008 PT&T: Sharing A Photoshop Action I Made
I wanted to change the look of the border around the photos that I post on the web (just a little) so I made a Photoshop action and thought I'd share it with you! I also made one that looks like the one I currently use because I've had a few people ask me how to do it.
So these actions will resize your pictures and then sharpen/USM them. There is stop on this step that will tell you to adjust layer 1 to taste. Click the arrow under opacity and slide it until the photo still looks sharp without losing detail (ex. if it makes your white too bright, slide it to the left until it looks good). This step also adds contrast besides sharpness so that may be another reason you may want to tone it down a bit (sliding the opacity slider towards the left). After that it will add the borders. Be sure not to save it over the original file or you will have a low quality (web sized) file in place of your full resolution file. Choose "save as" and change the file name a bit or totally to have it as a copy, and not a replacement, of your original file.
These should work with any version of Photoshop, but I only have CS2, so I can't say for sure. I don't think Photoshop Elements allows actions so I doubt they will work with that program.
Here are two examples of the actions and then I will add a link so you can download them if you want.
Similar to one I currently use:
New one (more of a white frame with black borders):
You can download the actions here: http://www.mediafire.com/?1b4jts3wdno
I am assuming if you have Photoshop that you know how to load & run actions. If you're new to Photoshop or don't know how to do those things, let me know & I'll add further directions here.
Did you notice I changed my blog's appearance? Since it is WINTER and I had SUMMER graphics decorating it, I figured it was time for a change. Amy Beth inspired me to do this. You should stop by & see her new design- that she did all on her own! VERY impressive! The graphics I use here are ones that I've purchased! I have NO idea how to do that or to alter my template much. By the way, Amy Beth, I had fun shopping at Homeschool Estore today! Thanks again for the awesome award! |
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Dec. 19, 2007 PT&T: Photoshop Head-Swapping Surgery
(Ha, ha! I had to do this entire photo over again so that I could show you step by step how I did this. I just realized that I used a different photo to replace this certain child's face in this tutorial than I did originally! Oh well, you'll get the idea!)
I thought I'd show you step by step how I swapped heads on one of the pictures. However, I know some (a lot!?) of you are not remotely interested, so I'll just show the pictures first, since some of you wanted to know whose head got swapped.
Here's the picture I liked but one of the children wasn't looking at me:
Luckily I had taken several shots in this series and I had one I liked better of that particular child. If Gracie's eyes were open and Alek and Millie were smiling like they were in the other, I would've just used this one:
So I stole that child's face from that photo and placed it on the photo I liked better. I also used the spot healing tool to get rid of the sore on Gabe's forehead, and here's the final product:
Now if you're interested, here's how I did it. I normally wouldn't take the time to do something like this, but it was REALLY REALLY easy because the lighting was the same, they' were taken at the same distance and Josiah's head pretty much stayed in the same position. If his head was turned or it was from a totally different picture, it would've been much harder to do and make it look real.
So here's how you do it in Photoshop. If you're using a different photo editing program, well, I won't know how to do it! Photoshop is all I know, but I'm sure there are similar tools in other programs.
The first thing you'll do is open up both pictures- the one you're taking the face from and the one you'll be adding it to. Make the photo you're taking from the active photo by clicking on it so that it's in front.
Next go to filter>extract.
Then this window will pop up:
Usually the highlighter tool is already selected, but if not, click on it (see red arrow) and then select a brush size. I chose 39 but could've gone a little smaller if I was wanting to be more precise. If the photos weren't so similar, I would've made the brush size smaller to save some time and work later on. After you've clicked on the highlighter tool & have your brush size the size you want, you'll hold down the left button of your mouse while you trace around the head. Be sure you kind of center your brush over the outline of the head.
After you have the head outlined, go to the paint bucket tool (see red arrow), center it the selection of the head and left click. It will fill your selection like this:
Next, hit okay and it will take you back to your photo which will now look like this:
 See? Everybody's gone but the selection you made- but do you notice he's missing some parts and it's kind of jagged looking? We need to fill him back in a little. So now go to the history brush (see red arrow). (side note: if you did any editing before you started the extraction process, you need to put your history brush next to that last step, otherwise the original photo will erase back in- say, you lightened your photo first- what you erase back in will be darker). Choose an appropriate sized soft brush (one that's just big enough to erase back in his face- if you choose too big of a size, you'll get more back than you want). I underlined the brush preset bar, where you adjust the brush size, softness/hardness and opacity- you want it at 100% opacity.
I "painted" his face back in and this is what he looks like now:
Don't worry about what's showing around his head if you're using two very similar pictures, like I did. The more different (that doesn't sound right! LOL!) your pictures are, the more precise you'll want to be- you would NOT want anything but his head showing.
Now, hold down the control key and then click on the layer to the right, where it says layer 0. I should've put a red arrow pointing to it, but if you just draw a straight line from Josiah's mouth towards the right of the screen and you'll run right into layer 0. After you do that, you'll see the "marching ants" around his head, showing you it's been selected. You could also go to Select>All and it should select that way too, I just usually use the control/click method. Then go to Edit>Copy. Now his head has been copied and is ready to place on the next photo.
Minimize that photo and bring up the one you want to add his head to. Now go to Edit>Paste. His head should paste into that photo and should look like this:
Now since you don't want his head floating around there like that and the thought of two Josiah's is just, well a little scary, you need to move his head and make just one Josiah.
You may need to zoom in a little so you can get it right. Another thing you can do if you're having trouble fitting the head in just right is decrease the opacity of the floating head. To do that, you'd slide the opacity tool slider, which is located to the right of Josiah's eyes (make another imaginary line), to the left. That will make his picture see-through. Don't slide it ALL the way to the left or he'll completely disappear. Just enough to help you out. You'll be able to fit him in better that way. And then of course don't forget to bump the opacity back up to 100% when you're done! You may also need to resize it if it was taken at a different distance.
 Once you have the head in a good position, it's time to clean up the photo a little bit. You can see that because I was a little sloppy in my selection of his head, I have some extra stuff that I need out of there (see red arrow). To do that, you'll use your eraser tool. I circled the eraser tool on the left of the screen. Another important thing about this step is to be sure the "head" layer is the "active" layer. Again, look to the right of the screen & you'll see two layers- the bottom one is the main photo and the top one is his head. You want the head layer to be blue (selected), otherwise, when you start erasing, you'll erase the main photo. Just erase around the edges till it looks right, then flatten your photo. (I right click on the bottom layer and choose "flatten image")
Voila! It took me FOREVER to type up this tutorial and take the screen shots and upload them and everything, but it only took me a few minutes to actually swap the heads. It really is easy! If you try it, let me see how you did!
Here's the before and after. Before:
AFTER:
Now I have GOT to get busy around here! |
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Nov. 24, 2007 PT&T: Catchlights (with assignment) And Another Quick Tip
I'm kind of piece mealing this together with photos I've already taken, so forgive the inconsistency. The sun starts to disappear behind the mountains around 3:30pm so I don't have much light to work with. I've only gotten my camera out 3 times this month! Boo-hoo! Can you say, withdrawals?
Here are some quick photography tips!
1. Catchlights. You want 'em. Good ones.
What are catchlights? Pretty much what they sound like. They're the light "caught" and reflected in the eyes. They give the eyes life- that sparkle!
Where does the light come from? You have to look for it. It's the sky reflected in the eyes; light that bounces off of cement, walls, buildings- whatever it is around you. You could also use a reflector to get catchlights. Turn your subject around 360 degrees and see how the reflected light changes in the eyes as they turn. When you see that sparkle, STOP! That's what you're looking for.
TURN OFF THAT FLASH! And leave it off. Forever. Okay, if it's a very, very, very important moment and it comes down to blurry pictures or your on-camera flash, it may be okay to use your flash in that situation. Just that once. But don't let it happen again. But your on-camera flash will NOT give you good catchlights. They will give you a good example of BAD catchlights. They will be pinpoint and right in the middle of the pupil. To get good catchlights, you want to avoid them falling on the pupil. If they're mostly on the iris and a little on the pupil, that's okay, but certainly try not to center them in the pupil. Now for the more advanced photographers with the fancy flashes that you can swivel and bounce and diffuse (which does not include me), you know how to get good catchlights with your equipment. It is possible to get good results with a flash if you have the right equipment and really know what you're doing.
On to some examples!
An old picture of Alek taken with my P&S (point & shoot) with the on-board camera flash on:
You can tell I used my flash for a few reasons: 1) the lighting is flat- not much shadow or depth to his face, 2) the harsh shadow on the wall behind him and 3) see the light in his eyes? Right in the middle of his pupils? Not appealing. And I LOVED this picture of him after I took it! (still do, but I look at my photos with more critical eyes these days)
Now here's one I took yesterday on a little walk we took.
This photo does have technical issues but I'm showing it for the catchlights. See the sky reflected on the upper part of his irises? See how his eyes sparkle? Scroll back up and compare the catchlights. Don't the natural ones look better?
And here's another photo of Alek. This was taken in 2004, pre DSLR days. This photo has NO catchlights at all.
 His eyes look dull- they lack that spark and life. What a difference a little thing like good catchlights can make for a photo, don't you think?
Here are some more examples.
Funky catchlights (to be more technically correct, catchlights should be at the 10:00 or 2:00 position on the eyes- I liked the funkiness of these though and I'm not always a rule follower, contrary to popular belief):
 This was taken inside. You can see the light reflecting off the kitchen table and into her eyes.
Here's another one I took of Alek over the summer. I post-processed this a little funky (major color pop- he's not wearing lipstick, promise!) but a good example of catchlights.
 You can see the sky reflected in his eyes.
The next two are examples of catchlights I got in Millie's eyes with the help of a silver-sided reflector.
 A little low in position but still gives some spark to her eyes.
And another bad example using on-board flash, taken in March '04 with P&S:
And a couple of good examples using studio lights- taken last year:
 Her eyes are a little squinty here, but you can still see the catchlights.
 Except on this one, they really should be a little higher on the iris. I should've raised my light a bit.
Okay, so that's enough of catchlights!
Onto another quick, easy tip.
2. Focus on purpose! Don't just point and shoot. Figure out how your camera focuses. If you're using a point and shoot, usually the center area is what the camera focuses on. And most point & shoots will let you "focus, recompose". For example, if your daughter is leaning on a tree on the left side of the frame and you want to capture the scenery to the right of her also but you want to have her be the main focus, you could point that center area over your daughter, push your shutter release button halfway down, hold it, recompose your shot so that your daughter is on the left again, and then take your shot by pushing the shutter release button all the way down.
With DSLR's you can choose your focal points. I hardly ever use the focus/recompose method because I like to shoot with larger apertures and that slight camera movement can cause you to lose your focus altogether. I am constantly changing my focal points to suit the scene.
Also, and this is another biggie about focus, if you are shooting photographing a person as your main subject, you want to focus on their EYES. You want their eyes to be the most focused part of the scene.
Here's what it will look like if you're sloppy with your focus. I took this of Josiah yesterday on our walk:
 Do you see that his face is out of focus but his ears are nice and sharp? Not how I wanted it to look.
Here's another of him with his eyes in focus:
 His ears are a little out of focus in this one, but that's okay. I wanted the focus on his eyes.
And then there are times when you want your child (or spouse, etc.) to be a little out of focus to make your subject look a little more 3-D-ish, and make it pop, like this one of the banana slug:
Or how about some crab legs, courtesy of Millie?
I could post lots more examples but I've run out of time! So two things for now: focus on purpose and watch for those catchlights!
Here's your assignment. I'd like you to take the time to find those catchlights! Turn off your flash, take your subject outside or near a window and photograph examples of good catchlights! If you don't have a reflector, get one! :) They're pretty inexpensive (around $25 or so) and such a valuable tool. If your budget's tight, you could even use white poster board from WM (a buck or two) Post them on your blog and link that specific post here so others can see your results. Post bad examples too if you wish. This one's fun & easy, so please join in!
FAQ's
Q: One question- how do you postition the poster board to get it to work? Do you try to catch the light with it and angle onto your child?
A: Try and angle it so that it is catching the available light, whether it be from the sun, overhead lights, etc., and bouncing it onto your subject, especially their eyes. Exactly how you described in the second question! :)
Q: What kind of reflector do you recommend?
A: It's kind of a personal decision- which would fit your lifestyle best? Will you always have someone around to help you hold it? I have a 5-in-1 collapsible reflector.(actually, I have 2) It folds up just like my gray card (as seen on the White Balance post), except it is much larger. MUCH larger. You can get just about any size you'd like. The larger the reflector you get, the more difficult they are to work with...but in a way, they're easier. Confused? You'll get more light reflected onto a larger area with the larger reflector. I have one smaller (maybe 3' diameter?) round reflector and a larger (5'x4'?) rectangular shaped reflector. The larger, rectangular shaped one is easier to prop up against chairs or trees (hence the one reason it's easier to use). I use this one a lot more but have found my smaller one to be a bit more portable because of its smaller size, but I have to hold that one while I'm taking the picture because it's so small- if I propped it up against something on the ground, it would only reflect light onto their legs. Not much help when you're wanting the light on their face. Click here for a link to ebay where you can browse the different types of reflectors. Having a 5-in-1 reflector is nice because you have different colored sides for different effects. My favorite side to use is the silver side. I like the contrast it gives and it really lights up the eyes nicely. I've found the white side to be a little too flat and the gold side a little too warm- unless you're going for that sunset look. ;) The inner frame has a translucent lining and that is good for diffusing light in bright, sunny conditions. There is a black side also to block unwanted light but I have never, ever had to use that side. I don't ever see that as being a problem here. Hee-hee!
By the way, you do NOT need a reflector to get catchlights nor do you need one for this assignment! Just find the light. Head towards the light. :) Embrace the light. Okay, I need to go to bed. |
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Oct. 8, 2007 Photography Tips: White Balance
DISCLAIMER: I am still in learning mode myself, especially now that I have a new camera (Canon 40D for those who've asked). I have never taken a photography class nor is this my profession. I'm just an enthusiast who has learned a lot by reading and lots of practice. I'd love to share what I've learned with you! Helping you is my motivation for doing this! If you're looking for advice from a professional, there are tons of tutorials out there! End of disclaimer. 
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS POSTS: At the end of each photography tips post, I will add FAQ's at the bottom as they're asked. So check back here for any white balance questions. For those that wish to participate in the assignments, be sure to add a link to your post at the bottom of this post. Please link directly to your assignment's post- not your main blog address. Also, I think I will change the date on this post to the present date as I update it, so that way it will get "bumped" to the top of my blog. That will alert you to any updates.
In my former life (before children), I was (am) a RN. You may notice a lot of comparisons to anatomy or nursey stuff for this reason. So let's begin with White Balance.
WHITE BALANCE
What is the purpose of white balance? Basically, to keep the whites in your photo white. But when the white balance is off, even the other colors in your photo look off. There is a whole range of color temperatures, measured in Kelvin, that affect photos. The higher temperatures on this scale produce a bluish color and those on the lower end, such as candle light, cast more of an orangish color. If this is not properly corrected by your camera, these color casts will show up in your photos. Have you ever looked at a photo and just knew something was off (color-wise) but couldn't figure out what it was? It could have been a white balance problem.
God is amazing when you think about it- we've been on this earth for nearly 7,000 years and we still don't know everything about the human body, yet He created us in just one day. Can you imagine having just 1% of His intelligence?
Our eyes are amazing organs. No matter what the color temperature is, our eyes see white as white. Go stand outside in the shade. Does your shirt turn blue? What about a candlelit room? Does your white shirt turn orange? No! It still looks white! You could say our eyes are constantly custom white balancing and are perfectly accurate at their job. However, our cameras are not as advanced as the eyes our Creator has given us and need a bit of help.
Most cameras, if not all, have technology that detects these color casts and corrects them for you. It is not perfect though. Your more advanced cameras, higher end point and shoots (P&S's from now on) and DSLRS, come with preset white balance options such as auto, shade, tungsten, cloudy, fluorescent, daylight, flash and custom.
I have found that if you choose the preset closest to the conditions you're in, you will almost always get better results than if you'd left it on auto white balance. The shade and cloudy presets warm up the photos and remove the bluish hue of shaded lighting. Tungsten cools the photo down by adding some blue, since there is such a strong orange cast under tungsten lighting (regular light bulbs).
The best results I get however, are when I take the time to do a custom white balance. Here's how you do this. First you need an 18% gray card- however, a plain sheet of white paper will work fine for now. You should also consult your camera's manual as some cameras prefer using all white over 18% gray, and some, like my camera, prefer the gray. It has to be 18% gray so be sure to purchase this item at a camera store where these are made just for this purpose.
You will be using this neutral color to show the camera what the color temperature is under your lighting conditions. The camera will use that information to remove color casts. It basically neutralizes your gray back to what gray should look like.
Also, any time your light changes, you should do another custom white balance, and it's a MUST if you're going from one major lighting condition to another- like from outdoors to inside.
Here, let me show you what I mean, using pictures. This is my gray card. My gray card is quite small and collapses and folds up just like those sun shades you put in the dash of your car. Here it is in the front pocket of my camera bag.
Here's my assistant (Millie) holding it so you can see how small it is folded up:
She popped it out & thought it was pretty funny. See, it's not very big:
Doing a custom white balance is really easy & just takes a minute or two once you've got it down. Not all cameras allow you to do a custom white balance, so check to see if yours does before you continue. If yours doesn't hang in there, I have an assignment for you too!
The first thing you do is have your subject hold the gray card where the light will be falling on them. I usually have them tip it up slightly to "catch" a bit of the light falling on them. I also have them hold it in front of their face so that part (skin tone!) is most accurate. You just have them hold it like this:
And then you fill the frame with the gray card. By filling the frame, I mean all you see in the viewfinder is the gray card. I try to make sure none of the black trim around the gray card is in the picture. I'm not sure if it would make much of a difference if some of the black got in there, but I just try to avoid it. The white crosshairs (or whatever you'd call them) on my gray card help the camera to auto focus. Without those, the camera would have a very difficult time figuring out what to focus on since there is no contrast in the photo. Here are some things you can do if your lens is having a hard time focusing on your gray card (if yours doesn't have the crosshairs) or your white sheet of paper. You could temporarily switch your lens to manual focus, take a photo of your gray card, and then switch it back to auto focus. Or, since the picture you take of the gray card does NOT have to be in focus for this to work, you could just snap your pic once you've filled the frame, not worrying about focus. Here is what your picture of the gray card should look like. Can you already see the bluish tint to this?
Now the next thing you will do depends on your camera. Usually though, you will go into your camera's menu screen and find the custom white balance menu item. Once you make that selection, it will have you browse to the photo you want to use as a reference point. And if the last picture you took was of your gray card, it will usually be the first photo that pops up. Choose that photo & hit set or enter. Now don't skip this next step! All you've done so far is tell your camera that WHEN you choose a custom white balance, the photo you chose is what you want to use as a reference point. It won't automatically switch your white balance over to CUSTOM, you have to do that yourself. On my camera, it's a matter of pushing the "white balance" button, and turning the dial until it gets to custom.
So it's 3 steps:
- take your photo of the gray card while under the light you'll be taking the pictures in (while your camera is in AUTO white balance mode, by the way)
- choose that photo as your reference point in the custom white balance menu setting
- switch your white balance mode to CUSTOM (instead of AUTO)
Now that you have that completed (see, that was easy, wasn't it?), it's time to take your photo. Try to keep your exposure the same in each photo.
Now I did this all out of order. I should've done my custom white balance example FIRST and then the other presets, because once you've done your custom white balance and taken that photo, it's really easy to switch to the other white balance modes. But I didn't. So my custom white balance example does not look quite the same as the others since I didn't back up as far as the first set, and that threw my exposure off. But I still think you can see what I'm talking about.
These pictures were taken on a partially cloudy day (the light kept coming and going) in the shade. I had her wear an off-white top so that color cast could be more easily noticed.
I took this one in AUTO WB (white balance). The color is a little flat and do you notice the bluish tint to it?
If you don't see the blue tint, here's a tip. In your photo editing program, bump the saturation up as high as it will go. Your picture will look something like this:
Now do you see the blue in her hair and on her skin? It shouldn't be there.
Here's the next photo taken on the SHADE setting. I think it looks good! Much better than the one on AUTO, that's for sure.
I checked the saturation on this one and it looked like this:
No more blue skin or hair!
This one was taken on the CLOUDY preset. I have to admit, with my old camera, I used this preset A LOT. These pictures were taken with my new camera. I think I like SHADE better than CLOUDY on this camera. The colors aren't as warm. But again, it's nice and better than AUTO.
It was then that I did my custom white balance and then took this shot. It ended up not as well exposed as the others so it's a little difficult to compare.
 The color is very rich and warm.
Here are all four, side by side:
Here is the custom after lightening it up a bit so it compares better with the others:
and SHADE lightened a bit:
I'm actually going back and forth between the two, as to which I like better. I like the warmer colors of the custom white balance but I think that the SHADE preset best represents her coloring. But one thing I know for sure, AUTO white balance would've been a poor choice.
Next we went inside and took some shots under my "hot light", which has the color temp of about what a tungsten bulb lets off. This time I actually did it in the order I will be recommending. This first one was taken after doing a CUSTOM white balance.
This one was taken on the AUTO setting:
And this one was taken with the TUNGSTEN preset:
Here are all 3 next to each other:
I don't know if you noticed, but with the TUNGSTEN preset, she has a bit too much of a magenta cast to her face, but really it's not bad at all and is pretty close. The AUTO is just awful. The CUSTOM is right about where it should be. No noticeable color casts.
Here are some more I took tonight in the bathroom. I was standing on the "pot" looking down at her, so when I took the picture of the gray card, I had it held out facing up, parallel with the ceiling, since that's how Millie's face was positioned. In other words, I positioned the gray card so that the light was hitting it in the same direction as the light hitting Millie's face. Here's what it looked like (not very gray, is it? in fact, scroll back up to the photo of the gray card from outside & look at the difference in color):
Now on these next 3, my settings were the exact same for each photo since the lighting did not change at all. The only difference between these three was my white balance settings (that and I had to clone in some bubbles on the CUSTOM shot, to cover up some privies). I had to set my ISO to 3200 since the light is very dim in there. I shot in aperture priority mode (my very best favorite mode) and set the exposure compensation to + 1 1/3 (my light meter wants to turn all of that white 18% gray, and I kind of like WHITE bubbles- but I'll save that for the exposure/lighting tutorial). My aperture was 2.8 & shutter speed 1/100. I try not to let my shutter speed drop lower than that otherwise I get blurred photos. This still aren't quite as sharp as I normally like, but....
This one was set to AUTO. Yucky orangish color cast. (my bathtub is supposed to be white)
This one was set to TUNGSTEN. Much better, but do you see that slight magenta color cast?
And this one was set to CUSTOM. It's a tad underexposed despite bumping my exposure compensation up to + 1 1/3, but you can tell the whites are white like they should be.
Here's all 3 side by side:
(added 10-7-07) Another example, using the colors of fall. These next three were taken in AV mode (aperture priority) with the exposure compensation set to + 1/3, aperture of 3.5, shutter speed 1/400 and ISO of 500. It was dark (at 4pm) because the sun was completely obliterated by clouds. I practically ran outside when it briefly stopped raining to take these. I ended up getting sprinkled on for a while anyway. This first one was taken with AUTO WB.
This one was taken with the WB set to CLOUDY:
And this one was taken with the WB set to CUSTOM:
The CLOUDY and CUSTOM pictures are *pretty* close in color. It looks to me like the CUSTOM WB brought out more of the yellow in the leaves. The AUTO has a lot of blue in it. Can you see it? Here are the AUTO and CUSTOM WB shots next to each other:
Another fall leaf comparison. I shot these in manual mode. I set the shutter speed to 1/400, aperture to 3.2 and ISO to 500. The only difference between these shots is the WB setting. This first one was taken in AUTO WB. Again, a lot of blue. The camera wanted to take the warm fall colors and cool them down a little (by adding blue), misinterpreting (because the camera has no brain) that these colors should not be so warm.
This one was taken in the CLOUDY WB preset:
And this one CUSTOM WB (btw, these 2 sets of leaves pictures were taken in 2 different locations, so I took a separate custom WB reading for each set):
Again, the CLOUDY and CUSTOM shots are pretty similar in color. I do see a bit more yellow in the CUSTOM pic, but they both look closer to the colors they really are than the AUTO pic. And in case you can't see the blue cast, here are the AUTO & CUSTOM shots, side by side, along with what they look like after adding +100 saturation underneath those.
By the way, all of these pictures, except for the ones I noted I had "lightened a bit" (and the ones with +100 saturation, of course), came straight out of the camera. No editing at all except to resize, sharpen & frame for the web.
So I hope that you can see that using AUTO white balance it not always your best option. I think AUTO does best when under bright sun or if you're using your flash. But in any other lighting conditions, you should choose the preset that best represents the light. I may add more examples to this later as these aren't as strong as I was hoping to present, but like I said, I'm just learning this new camera.
Now here's your assignment, should you choose to accept it. I would like you to play around with your camera's auto white balance presets. Grab a willing subject (I had to bribe mine with Baskin Robbin's ice cream) so that you have a constant to compare your pictures with. If you don't have a willing child, grab a baby doll or stuffed animal, a coke can- anything. Make sure your subject is wearing at least some white or another light color. DISABLE YOUR FLASH. Now go wild. Put it on CLOUDY under TUNGSTEN lighting. Put it on SHADE under FLUORESCENT lighting. Try all sorts of combinations and post some of your wild and crazy color cast pictures. Whatever combos you want to try. See how that little dial affects your pictures. Just remember which PRESET you chose and the lighting conditions in which you were shooting (shade, tungsten lighting, etc.) and post that info along with your photos. If you forget what settings you used, depending on your camera, your info may be stored in an EXIF file accessible with the software that came with your camera. The EXIF file will save all of your shooting info for each picture.
**If your camera does not allow you to change the white balance presets, you can still participate! Your camera will still pick up color casts, so try this: disable your flash and take pictures of your subject in as many lighting conditions you can: under the lights in the garage, living room, outside in bright sun, outside in the shade, etc. and see if you can pick out the color casts in your photos.**
And now we'll get serious. Choose at least 2 different locations, preferably one outdoors and one indoors and do the following.
- First, you must DISABLE YOUR FLASH. If your flash goes off, it will defeat the whole purpose of playing around with white balance. Most cameras are great about getting the white balance right when your flash goes off, because it uses its flash white balance preset automatically.
- Next do a custom white balance if you are able to: if not, just skip this step. When you do a custom white balance, make sure your white balance is set to AUTO when you take your picture of the gray card or white paper. Follow the steps outlined above, and then take a picture of your subject.
- Keeping your subject in the same position and hopefully with the same exposure and amount of light, take a picture of them with the PRESET that closely matches your lighting conditions.
- Now take a picture with the white balance set to AUTO.
- Find another location and repeat, making sure to do another custom white balance under the new lighting conditions.
- Post your results! Add the link to your post to this Mister Linky thing below and be sure to visit others' sites to see their results!
I also wanted to add that you CAN fix color casts in post-processing (i.e. Photoshop or whatever photo editing software you use). Sometimes the color cast is so severe though that it's impossible to make it look right, and those usually end up in the recycle bin. When photos are a little cool (bluish), that's a pretty easy fix. You just add a little yellow in color balance (what I do) or you could use a warming filter, but I've never had great results with that. But it's always best to try and get it right in the camera FIRST.
I am looking forward to seeing your results! Hope that was helpful.
FAQ's:
Q: I'm trying to play with my white balance and for some reason when I switch to auto, take the picture of my gray card, switch to custom it isn't giving me an option to choose a picture.... any ideas? Is it possible it's automatically using the last picture I took without me choosing it?
A: I don't think your camera will automatically choose your picture. I think you're missing a step. There are two things you have to do to use custom white balance. After taking a pic of your gray card, the first thing you have to do is go into your camera's MENU SCREEN (on mine I hit the menu button and scroll over a page in the menu screen to "Custom WB". This is the step that you choose the picture you want your camera to use as a reference point. After this step, you then go to the WB BUTTON on the top of your camera (or wherever yours is located), push that & then turn the dial to CUSTOM white balance. This last step is the same as when you change your WB from CUSTOM back to AUTO or TUNGSTEN, etc. Does that help?
Q: Do you happen to have this in a Word document?
A: I do now! Just for my buddy RaShell. (well, and anyone else who'd like a copy!) I should have written it up that way in the first place. I also converted it to PDF in case that's more convenient. Just keep in mind this post may get updated (I've already edited it 1,482 times) and I probably won't remember to update these 2 files & reupload them. But I'll try. And they aren't pretty (formatting, etc.) but Word and Acrobat are not my thing. Word drives me nuts. I can never figure out how to format things correctly in Word.
Please someone let me know if these links don't work and I'll see what I can do. I tested them & they work for me, but I'm wondering if it's a one time download link?
Alyssa's White Balance Tutorial (WORD- 11.09 MB)
Alyssa's White Balance Tutorial (PDF- 2.14 MB)
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Sep. 20, 2007 Photography Tips & Tricks- Doh! I'm Sorry!
I have to apologize. When I said I would put together some photography how-to's & tutorials & things this summer, I had NO idea how much time I would be putting into the children's school schedule. I'm sure you've heard me say this already- that that took up almost my entire summer. I wasn't able to get this done like I said I would, and I apologize. I pride myself as being someone who's true to their word, so even I am disappointed in myself.
Anyway, I'd still like to do this, but I'm just not going to give myself a deadline this time. I'm going to try & work on a white balance tutorial first, complete with assignments. If you actually do the assignments, leave a comment under that topic stating you wish to participate & leave a link to where we can find your results, and I'll add your names & a link to your blog to the bottom of the particular topic's page so you can look at others' results. I think I'll also add Q&A's at the bottom of each topic's post.
And don't let the complicated sound of white balance turn you off! It's actually kind of fun and makes a big difference in your photos if you know how to use it. Some advanced point & shoot cameras will let you do a custom white balance, and even the less advanced point & shoots (P&S) will at least let you choose your white balance. So it's not just for DSLR's (digital single lens reflex cameras).
At any rate, stay tuned! I haven't forgotten this project! |
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Aug. 16, 2007 Walking The World's Rim
We had an absolutely wonderful day today! My husband's sister and her husband are here visiting from Ohio, and as is custom when we have people visit, we took them on a hike.
It was a beautiful day, although my husband did scold me a little for merely mentioning the fact that it was a little bit TOO hot for our hike. We've had HORRIBLE weather this summer but today was a gorgeous, sunny day. (ssshhhhh, don't tell DH but I actually prefer overcast, cooler days for hiking.... and picture taking. that's all I meant)
I have hardly done anything this summer but work on preparing for this upcoming school year. So it was nice to be able to get out and do something ACTIVE, let some energy out, get some fresh air... and get to play with my camera.
And of course the best part of it all was the company. I've always admired Kenton's sister. She's 10 years older than Kenton & Kim's youngest child was born the year Kenton and I got married... which means she's FOURTEEN! Back when we were first married, I was in AWE that Kim had FOUR children! And not only that, they were extremely obedient and incredibly SWEET children! They still are! Their oldest child got MARRIED last summer, and we drove (yes, drove!) to Ohio to be there. Sweet, sweet family.
So anyway, today we took them to Hurricane Ridge. Cousin Kim, this is the hike we took you guys on last October! Except the Camp Robber birds (Gray Jays) were NOWHERE to be found! Boo! And we brought bread to feed to them too.
PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS FOR SHOOTING IN FULL SUN: Shooting in full sun is hard. You get very harsh shadows, squinty eyes and the color gets washed out easily. If you're out to get a nice portrait in full sun, there are things you can do to improve your chances of getting a good photo.
- Move to the shade. Yep, move your subject to the shade. Move them as close to the edge of the shaded area as you can. This will allow the available light to bounce off of the ground, building, mountain or whatever is near you and onto your subject.
- Watch for splotchy light. You know the bits of light that shines through trees? That type of light is very unflattering and distracting. Watch the light around your subject (especially the light falling ON your subject).
- If shade is unavailable and you have an all-in-one reflector (which I HIGHLY recommend- it's one of those "must haves" for photography, IMO), you can use the translucent lining to soften the light by holding up the reflector frame over your subject in the direction the light is hitting them.
- Use your reflector to help bounce light back onto your subject. I prefer to use the silver side as it adds contrast and reflects light better than say, the white side and is not as flat. (I don't take my reflector on hikes )
- If you have a SLR (single lens reflex camera), you could use the "sunny 16" rule. You set your aperture to 16, and your ISO and shutter speed at either 100 or 200 (the same number for both).
- You can also use your flash to fill in the shadows. However, I admit, I am a flash-a-phobic and very, very rarely use my flash at all.
Of course, you don't want to skip taking pictures just because the lighting isn't in your favor. It's not just an art, it's preserving memories. Better to have lots of snapshots than only a handful of portraits.
Okay, I am way too tired to be writing up tips, so on with the pictures! LOL!
Aunt Kim, Kenton & my boys and Uncle Mike, at the beginning of our hike. Kim is so skinny! Just like my DH & their other sister. NO FAIR!:
Pretty.... weeds? Flowers?
I got ONE picture of Gabe on this hike. And NONE of Alek (except their backs in the first pic). I had to hang back with my littles most of the hike. See those skin blow outs I was talking about? But, I'm keeping it since it's my ONE picture of him from today.
Josiah needed to rest. And then he wanted to "cake pitchoors". He never wants his picture taken. Goof!
After Josiah & I caught back up with everyone, Kenton had him ride in the backpack for a while.
Miss Millie had a bit of a 'tude today so she stuck with me the rest of the hike. We went off & had a little talk. It worked, don't you think? Doesn't she look repentant?
A meadow with the mountains as a backdrop.
Don't get dizzy! Looking down on the trail we just hiked up!
As Millie & I were hiking UP the mountain, the rest of them were hiking DOWN. Here we caught up to Gracie and then she joined us back up to the top of the mountain. Gracie's a hiker.
We're a little slow for her.
This is why Gracie wanted to go back- she wanted to play in the little patch of SNOW! There are glaciers on these mountains. This is just snow though. Doesn't it look like they could just slide down the mountain on it? Eek. It did feel good though. I put a handful of it on my neck.
An Olympic Marmot! We saw a few on our hike, but from a distance. This one was several feet away from this patch of snow. I didn't have a zoom lens on (rarely ever do- just my primes) so I'd take a pic, walk closer. Take a pic, walk closer. I got probably 4 feet away from him! He'd retreat to his burrow when I'd take a step closer but would come back out once I stopped. It was pretty big! Smaller than a beaver but much larger than a prairie dog.
One more of this handsome devil, different angle:
See the little tiny people on the far off trail?
We caught back up with Josiah and Kenton. I guess everyone else had already started to head back to the van.
Sass:
My girls were in the mood for pictures today! It was so fun!
I could've lingered for a couple more hours if I didn't have so many people waiting on us. The flowers were just beautiful and were *begging* to have their picture taken!
And then we spotted this butterfly:
Another pretty shady spot:
Walking the World's Rim:
Girls being goofy:
Millie fell back into the grass and was inspecting a bug she saw:
And the rest of these I took when I got home. Please stop here if you are of the weak stomached variety. These are pretty gross.
Okay, I warned you. :)
Banana slugs.
Josiah inspecting the above banana slug:
Okay, this one's really gross. Banana Slug on a Stick, courtesy of Gabe. Self-marinating. See that gooey snot looking stuff sticking to it? It's their protective mechanism (but their slime has other more useful functions). When we first moved here, the children were SO excited to see these slugs, so they picked them up & brought them to show show us. That slime, I swear, is what they must make Super Glue out of! It is EXTREMELY sticky! It seriously took Kenton about 20 minutes to wash it off of Gracie's hands. G-R-O-S-S!
He was very obliging letting me photograph him so much. And then Gabe found him a playmate and that was it. They became extremely shy and retreated into their.... heads?
There they remained for a few minutes, so I gave up and went inside.
That's all for now! |
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Jun. 2, 2007 Photography Tips & Tricks
I have been thinking about something a lot lately and have decided to take on a little project here. I'd like to share some of what I've learned about photography and want to put together some tutorials. Keep in mind, I am not a professional- you could say I've homeschooled myself in the art of photography and what I know, I've learned on my own. This will be more a mom-to-mom how to take better pictures of your children rather than how to turn into a professional. I have never taken a class and do not claim to know it all, but have learned quite a bit about photography that I think has taken my skills to the next level.
Now if you're not a bit interested in photography, don't worry. I plan to blog about other things too. It will probably take me the whole summer to complete this.
I have a LOT of people email me, asking questions about photography (mostly people who visit my website) and several times I've thought "I wish I had saved that email I wrote to _____" when someone else has asked me the same question. Photography is one of my favorite subjects to chat about, so I don't mind people's questions at all, but I think it would be nice to be able to refer them here and they could read through the posts I've written.
I plan on including plenty of pictures, of course, so you can see what I'm explaining. I will also try to adapt the info for those of you using a point & shoot with no manual controls. There should be plenty to benefit you too. In case you're wondering, I have the Canon Digital Rebel- the 300D- the first of the Digital Rebels. You can find this model pretty cheap these days- less than $500 on ebay. It's a digital SLR, or single lens reflex. This type of camera gives you full control of your settings and allows you to shoot more creatively. Of course you can also shoot in full auto too.
I am waiting for Canon to upgrade their more professional model, the 30D, to a 40D, and have already gotten Kenton's approval to get that one. :)
Here are the topics I plan to cover:
- The Basics
- Necessary Equipment
- Exposure
- Aperture
- Focus
- Shutter Speed
- ISO
- White Balance
- Composition
- Seeing the Light
- Catchlights
- Post Processing (i.e. Photoshop)
I may combine some of these topics into the same post, as everything is so interrelated. If you notice any errors, please let me know. Also, leave any questions you have in the comments section under that topic, and I'll answer them there.
Off to clean my house! |
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